Why is Raven Symone being given so much flack for her "I'm an American" comment?

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   cat on a soapboxposted 10 years ago

   Why is Raven Symone being given so much flack for her "I'm an American" comment?
   
   Recently in an interview w/ Oprah, Raven Symone stated that she wanted to be acknowledged as an "American" rather than an "African-American."  The comment irked Winfrey and has had negative repercussions. Why?

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2. 78

   Express10posted 10 years ago

   Because the government, employers, organizations and individuals want to put people into a racial box. Everyone here is aside from Native Americans is an immigrant! Why should anyone be made to feel bad for saying they are American?
   
   The US and other governments have changed their racial definitions on a few occasions to suit their needs or desires. Fill out a government form, a mortgage application, a job application, even a freaking sweepstakes entry from a national chain store and you will be asked for your race, what the heck for? Not that anyone or any organization has a legitimate need to know. Protest by writing in American instead!
   In some countries such as Brazil, people of all backgrounds come TOGETHER and identify as Brazilian. Until we can force the US government, employers, organizations and individuals to stop putting people into racial boxes and into the American box instead, we will have more BS for anyone saying they are American instead of Irish, black, white, Russian, Peruvian, etc.
   Happy New Year's

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      cjhunsingerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I applaud most of what you say, but Indians are not native to America, They walked here from Siberia. We took a boat from Europe. The only native people are those who never left Africa.

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   2. 78

      Express10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Not unlike Jodah's answer, re: Aborigines, I  and many others consider Native Americans due to their 20,000 - 30,000 year residency prior to any others to be natives of America. They were here at least 20,000 - 30,000 years before anyone else.

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   3. 60

      cjhunsingerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Express-It really does not matter what one believes to be true, when a fallacy is embraced as a truth it is still a fallacy.

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   4. 78

      Express10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It is a fact that Native Americans were here for many thousands of years prior to any other people coming here. Government & others do not want people to be American and shame and force them into checking certain boxes or they'll do it for them.

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   5. 60

      cjhunsingerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Express--The point, the fact, the truth is that they too, migrated. It does not matter when or how. You can believe that a goat is a  cow for whatever reason you want, but it does not make it true..

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3. 60

   cjhunsingerposted 10 years ago

   I do not know who Raven Symone is, but I applaud her position.
   This forced division of Americans has been going on for some time. Although we can see it all the way back to 1700's, post Revolution, it was never enhanced or forced by the government until the Civil Rights Movement and the idea was married to the United Nations push for multiculturism, tolerance and diversity.
   As a Founding member of the UN, as all  member nations are obliged to put forward those principals set forth in the Charter and Dec on Humman Rights.
   This would also include socialized healthcare, federally controlled education, the Federal embrace of unions and many more things that bring our government away from the US Constitution.
   The following are quotes from a speach given by Teddy Roosevelt,  primarily aimed at those Europeans who came to America and refused to relinquish their European identities. 
   
   "The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality,"
   "There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good America."

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   Jodahposted 10 years ago

   I agree she should be able to call herself simply American. It is the same here in Australia...every Government form that has to be filled out has a question: "Do you identify with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders?" meaning are you of that heritage. It is time we are all classified as simply "Australian." Although here it is slightly different...they were here first, so they should be automatically called Australian and everyone else should have to state the heritage they come from.

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